BEAUFORT, S.C. – While some thought a few bigger fish would cross the scales in the Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour event Friday, Mother Nature had different plans.
She made things a little more “sporty” today, as kingfish anglers say, by bringing some 4- to 5-foot seas along the South Carolina coast.
As a result, only one team, Team Castrol-Royal Flush, pushed its way into the top five with a 35-pound, 14-ounce king, which put them in fourth place overall.
After making a long run Thursday, which produced a fish weighing 14-pounds, 3-ounces, Team Castrol-Royal Flush, captained by Nick Parrish out of Jacksonville, Fla., chose to stay closer today, and the result was a top-five qualifying kingfish.
“We just didn’t want to beat ourselves up again,” Parrish said. “So went out about 15 miles, dropped a couple of ribbonfish on a downrigger to 35 feet, and that one bit at about 12 o’clock.”
Team Hard Way rests up
Team Hard Way, captained by C. Todd Korker out of Jupiter, Fla., easily maintained their
lead today after weighing in a 44-pound, 15-ounce king on day one. In fact, the team didn’t even need to go out today, but they did for just a little while.
“We peeked our head out there for a few minutes today,” Korker said. “It was a little rougher than yesterday, so we decided to turn around, come back in and rest up for tomorrow. I’ve never had the luxury of doing that before. It was nice. We were able to rig up tackle and take our time getting ready for tomorrow.”
As far as a game plan for Saturday’s finals, Team Hard Way seemed indifferent on revisiting the area that produced their big king Thursday.
“We really adjust our fishing according to the weather and conditions,” said crew member Joshua Denton. “We’re not dead set on going back to that place just because it produced a big fish. You can get in trouble with that mentality out here.
“It might be blowing even worse tomorrow, so we don’t get our heart set on anything in this game. We’ll take a look at the conditions tomorrow and probably won’t make a final call until we leave the inlet.”
“Plus, we’re dealing with migrating fish and bait,” Korker added. “Kingfish are such a here-today-gone-tomorrow type of fish. Josh and I have learned that just because a place coughs up several big fish one day, that’s no guarantee that it will be the same the next day. Baitfish move. Fish move. We just go out there and see what the day gives us.”
Salty Dog confident in area
Team Salty Dog, captained by Jeff Osborne out of St. Augustine, Fla., held onto the second-place position with a kingfish caught on day one weighing 38 pounds, 3 ounces.
Salty Dog didn’t rest on their laurels today as the team put in a full day of fishing on their primary area to see if their fish were still present.
“We got one in the high 20s, low 30s today, so we were happy about that,” Osborne said.
Osborne fished in the same area which produced their runner-up king yesterday as well as a larger king that was eaten by a shark earlier Thursday.
“Before we caught the 38-3 yesterday, we had a monster king on,” Osborne recounted. “We fought it for 25 or 30 minutes and saw it several times. We estimated it to be in the high 40s, maybe low 50s. And before we could get it to the gaff, a 10-foot hammerhead obliterated the thing, turning the water around us into a blood bath. It’s so disheartening when that happens, and it’s hard to bounce back.
“But we pulled ourselves together as a team, and the very next bite was the big one we weighed yesterday. We caught the nice one there today, too, so hopefully it will hold up, and we can get another big one tomorrow.”
Team Cat Daddy lurks for win No. 2
The only team in the top five that has recorded a previous FLW Kingfish Tour win is Team Cat Daddy, captained by Danny Mathis out of Gonzales, La.
Their day-one fish of 36 pounds, 8 ounces held them in third place through the weigh-in today.
With the Fort Pierce win in 2005 and 17 years of kingfishing experience behind him, Mathis is in contention for his second Kingfish Tour win.
“We figured we’d stay in the top five with our day-one weight,” Mathis said. “So we actually fished for the win today by going after a sure-enough big fish. We figured if we had any chance of catching the leaders, we needed to get a 40-plus on the board today, but it didn’t happen.
“We’ll still give it our best shot tomorrow, but we’ve got quite a bit of ground to make up.”
Team Wild Ride hangs on to fifth
Team Wild Ride, captained by Randy Griffin Jr. out of Hampstead, N.C., nabbed the last qualifying position today with their day-one fish, which weighed 34 pounds, 11 ounces.
The team fished a full day today and discovered things had changed in their best area.
“Things are different in our area now,” said crew member Phil Cottrell. “The weather has changed, the bait has changed, and I don’t think the area is going to produce what we need. We’ve got a lot of ground to make up, so we’re going to talk to some other teams tonight and see if we can’t formulate a different game plan for tomorrow.”
Day-three competition will resume at 6:30 a.m. Saturday.